SCB North America SCBNA

North American Congress for Conservation Biology (NACCB) - The biennial NACCB represents an important facet of SCBNA's work to foster communication among conservation scientists and practitioners in North America. The goal of NACCB is to provide a forum for presenting and discussing new research, developments and strategies that will inform policy changes and conservation practices to address today's conservation challenges. NACCB 2024 will be held June 23-28 in Vancouver, Canada and will host multiple workshops, short courses, interactive sessions, symposia and contributed oral, speed and poster presentations, along with several opportunities for professional development, networking, and collaboration. NACCB is the organization's largest program providing services to members and the 2024 in-person conference is expected to have ~800 attendees.

Membership and Development Services - SCBNA provides a strong collective voice for the science and practice of conservation. SCBNA maintains a news blog and regular newsletter. SCBNA supports members' conservation science efforts by providing resources, events, and other opportunities to strengthen the conservation science professional community at the local, national and continental levels. SCBNA also shares opportunities and resources with its membership via its social media channels. In addition to past and current newsletters and the news blog, the SCBNA website is home to several resources related to the programs detailed in 4a and 4b above.

Education, Policy, Equity, Inclusion & Diversity, and Chapters Services - Members (~1100) benefit from SCBNA guidance and initiatives including trainings, guidance/collaboration on policy statements and recommendations, and other opportunities to strengthen the conservation science professional community at the local, national and continental levels. In addition to participating in ongoing discussions on revisions to the North American Model of Wildlife Conservation, SCBNA also established a new partnership with the Protecting Science for the Public Good (ProSci) network and began discussions on a separate collaborative opportunity with the North American Partnership for Environmental Community Action (NAPECA). Planning for education-focused activities included a a summer-long series of workshops on topics ranging from statistical analysis to species distribution modeling. Such workshops were well-attended (average of 30-50 attendees per session) and were made available on SCBNA's Youtube Channel for future viewing. In preparation for NACCB 2024, the organization began work on a new series of abstract and presentation preparation seminars to be offered throughout the academic year and built on their collaboration with other SCBNA-related groups regarding student support, especially at the Chapter-level. SCBNA also continued continued its work on key initiatives to promote inclusivity across the organization's membership. Most importantly, the organization finalized its Allyship Video Series - now available on the SCBNA's YouTube Channel - and developed a series of viewing sessions with membership to discuss the videos in detail, along with a viewing curriculum that can be implemented in higher education courses.